Jo Spence: Putting Myself in the Picture

After reading the Photo Therapy: New portraits for old from ‘Putting Myself in the Picture’ I was inspired by the quote ‘Through the medium of visual reframing we can begin to understand that images we hold of ourselves are often the embodiment of particular traumas, fears, loses, hopes and desires’.

What Jo Spence was saying within this quote links to the idea of using childhood images within my work. It’s interesting to look at the images and consider where my social anxiety began and if at the different stages of my life what my feats and hopes were like quoted by Jo Spence.

When talking about it in relation to self portraiture, the main reason for me using this form of photography enables me to represent myself that I would not feel comfortable doing in another way. My self portraits represent what Jo Spence talks about within the chapter perfectly, and whether I do it consciously or not, the images represent deep rooted issues within me.

Layered sculpture design

After struggling to think of ways to construct the sculpture with layers, i’m going to put it together using invisible wire. This will allow each layer to hang separately so that the pictures and writing can be seen, still enabling the shape of a person to be made.

The wire will go through each layer, and the sculpture when presented will be hung up. When the sculpture is not hung up it will simply collapse together, meaning the sculpture is only visible at certain times.

Photographs within my work

Up until this point my research has focused mainly of the design of the sculpture itself, however after beginning to think about the actual photographs I want to use I have come up with a few different options that I will experiment with.

Photos from my childhood – These photographs will represent my life before I had social anxiety, showing the difference between life then and now with anxiety.
Self portraits – After using self portraits within my previous module to represent what it is like to live with social anxiety, I have decided that I want to carry on with this idea and continue to produce self portraits based around mental health.
Landscapes/nature – This is something that I also used within the previous module. The landscapes contrasted with the self portraits, often representing peace. It also helped the project to not become boring, offering something different from continuous self portraits.

Sculpture Design

As well as experimenting with the method i’ve already previously spoken about, in which I create layers that would make the shape of the ‘body’, I also want to experiment with using paper mache to create my sculpture.

With the idea of pulling out layers, I am struggling to find ways to attach the layers together, as well as creating something that allows me to remove each layer and slide it back in. I also think that simply sticking photographs and words onto each layer isn’t as creative or as interesting as I would like the project to be.

Using paper mache to create a ‘body’ shape will allow me to easily cover the sculpture. I would look to cover the main body in words and quotes that I have personally written which describes social anxiety, and from the head have ‘stem’s’ representing my thoughts, in which I hang photographs off.

Below is a basic mock up of the how words would look covering the main part of the body, and as I go onto mock the work up for real, I will then add the stems in which the photographs can be attached.

Basic mock up of text on the main sculpture

The Cut is the Click – Katrein De Blauwer

Still exploring the idea of a project based around self portraiture and my own mental health issues, I came across this article in Black+White Photography magazine. The article focuses on photographer Katrein De Blauwer whose work was inspired by her troubled childhood. ‘I start with emotions… love, pain, loneliness. The last is the present for me’. Although I visually like the work, it is the way in Katrein speaks about her project that inspires me. My own work is very much based around emotions and how with this module I want to look specifically into what events in the past shaped my life and explore what triggered my social anxiety.

Although the work is produced using film, it is a similar style to the type of work I want to produce. It has a ‘scrap book’ feel to it. The work is in no perfect, which is what makes it feel so personal. Because of the work feeling like it comes from some form of diary, as a viewer we feel as though we are being given a private insight into the life of Katrein De Blauwer. She herself says the she is ‘happy for it to be open to interpretation’. Again, this is very similar in regards to the intention for my work. As the project is so personal to me, it is up to the viewer to decide what it is I’m trying to represent and if it relates to them.